4 Kings 4:29
Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not: and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et ille ait ad Giezi : Accinge lumbos tuos, et tolle baculum meum in manu tua, et vade. Si occurrerit tibi homo, non salutes eum : et si salutaverit te quispiam, non respondeas illi : et pones baculum meum super faciem pueri.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν Ἐλεισαῖε τῷ Γιεζεί Ζῶσαι τὴν ὀσφύν σου καὶ λάβε τὴν βακτηρίαν μου ἐν τῇ χειρί σου καὶ δεῦρο· ὅτι ἐὰν εὕρῃς ἄνδρα οὐκ εὐλογήσεις αὐτόν, καὶ ἐὰν εὐλογήσῃ σε ἀνὴρ οὐκ ἀποκριθήσῃ αὐτῷ· καὶ ἐπιθήσεις τὴν βακτηρίαν μου ἐπὶ πρόσωπον τοῦ παιδαρίου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֨אמֶר לְגֵיחֲזִ֜י חֲגֹ֣ר מָתְנֶ֗יךָ וְקַ֨ח מִשְׁעַנְתִּ֣י בְיָדְךָ֮ וָלֵךְ֒ כִּֽי תִמְצָ֥א אִישׁ֙ לֹ֣א תְבָרְכֶ֔נּוּ וְכִֽי יְבָרֶכְךָ֥ אִ֖ישׁ לֹ֣א תַעֲנֶנּ֑וּ וְשַׂמְתָּ֥ מִשְׁעַנְתִּ֖י עַל פְּנֵ֥י הַנָּֽעַר
Haydock's commentary
Salute him not. He that is sent to raise to life the sinner spiritually dead, must not suffer himself to be called off, or diverted from his enterprise, by the salutations or ceremonies of the world. (Challoner)
So must the preachers of the gospel diligently fulfil their important office, Luke x. 4. (St. Gregory, hom. 17.) Urbanity is not reprehended; but no human transaction ought to impede what is divine. (St. Ambrose, ibid.[Luke x. 4.?]) In ancient comedies, slaves are always represented in a hurry. The Jews will not salute any person when they are going to their synagogues, for fear of being distracted in their devotions. (Calmet)
Eliseus requires the utmost expedition, that the favour might be the greater, Qui cito dat, bis dat. (Menochius)
He would also prevent his servant from telling any one what he was about, that he might not be touched with vanity, and thus hinder the miracle, which some think was nevertheless the case. (R. Salomon) (Theodoret, q. 17.) (Tirinus)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, On the Mission of the Seventy Disciples, and Christ's Charge to Them. Precedents Drawn from the Old Testament. Absurdity of Supposing that Marcion's Christ Could Have Given the Power of Treading on Serpents and Scorpions
He chose also seventy other missionaries besides the twelve. Now why, if the twelve followed the number of the twelve fountains of Elim, should not the seventy correspond to the like number of the palms of that place? Whatever be the Antitheses of the comparison, it is a diversity in the causes, not in the powers, which has mainly produced them. But if one does not keep in view the diversity of the causes , he is very apt to infer a difference of powers . When the children of Israel went out of Egypt, the Creator brought them forth laden with their spoils of gold and silver vessels, and with loads besides of raiment and unleavened dough; whereas Christ commanded His disciples not to carry even a staff for their journey. The former were thrust forth into a desert, but the latter were sent into cities. …
St Augustine Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, On the same lesson of the Gospel, John ix., on the giving sight to the man that was born blind
5. Hear one seeing, who once was blind. Behold, against what a cross they have miserably stumbled, who would not confess their blindness to the Physician! The Law had continued with them. What serveth the Law without grace? Unhappy men, what can the Law do without grace? What doeth the earth without the spittle of Christ? What doeth the Law without grace, but make them more guilty? Why? Because hearers of the Law and not doers, and hereby sinners, transgressors. The son of the hostess of the man of God was dead, and his staff was sent by his servant, and laid upon his face, but he did not revive. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXI
17. But there is in some copies, “For I have not known literature.” Where some books have “trading,” there others “literature:” how they may accord is a hard matter to find out; and yet the discrepancy of interpreters perchance showeth the meaning, introduceth no error. Let us inquire then how to understand literature also, lest we offend grammarians in the same way as we did traders a little before: because a grammarian too may live honourably in his calling, and neither forswear nor lie. Let us examine then the literature which he hath not known, in whose mouth all the day long is the praise of God. …
St John Cassian The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults, Chapter VIII. Of the Staff of the Egyptians
For Elisha, himself one of them, teaches that the same men used to carry a staff; as he says to Gehazi, his servant, when sending him to raise the woman’s son to life: “Take my staff and run and go and place it on the lad’s face that he may live.” And the prophet would certainly not have given it to him to take unless he had been in the habit of constantly carrying it about in his hand. And the carrying of the staff spiritually teaches that they ought never to walk unarmed among so many barking dogs of faults and invisible beasts of spiritual wickedness (from which the blessed David, in his longing to be free, says: “Deliver not, O Lord, to the beasts the soul that trusteth in Thee”), but when they attack them they ought to beat them off with the sign of the cross and drive them far away; and when they rage furiously against them they should annihilate them by the constant recollection o …